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Plunderbird
Plunderbird was the name given to five separate box-wedge shaped competitors that competed in the first five series of Robot Wars - the only robot in Robot Wars to fight in all five of those wars. The first Plunderbird was eliminated in the Gauntlet, but was ultimately awarded the inaugural Best Design Award. Plunderbird 2, the most successful version of the machine, was able to win its Heat in The Second Wars by winning the King of the Castle Trial and defeating The Mule in the Heat Final, but ultimately lost in the Gauntlet in the Semi-Finals once again. Later models of Plunderbird were unable to reach the same level of success. Plunderstorm, Plunderbird 4 and Plunderbird 5 tended to be unreliable and the robots lost in the first round on frequent occasions, with only Plunderbird 4 passing the first round of the UK Championship. Plunderbird was well known for its team, the International Wreck Crew, who portrayed themselves with a "tough-guy" attitude, and frequently sang raps. The two had a good-natured rivalry with the Sir Chromalot team over who could provide more entertaining personas. The team was nominated for the Sportsmanship Award on three occasions, winning the award in Series 2. Versions of Plunderbird Plunderbird 1 The original Plunderbird was a basic box-wedge shape and was powered by a custom-built 12 volt engine to drive it up to 7 mph. It carried a range of interchangeable weapons built into box-like constructions called "Pods", which could be inserted into a cradle built into the front of the robot. The two shown on television were a retracting spike guided by a laser sight, much like 101's, and an electric circular saw on an extendable arm, which was usually concealed, but could flip out of the robot when operational. It travelled an insufficient distance in the Gauntlet after driving onto a grille and getting attacked by Shunt, but when Dreadnaut broke down, it appeared that Plunderbird 1 would qualify for the trial. However, Dreadnaut saved itself at the last minute, and Plunderbird was eliminated. However, the interchangeable weaponry gave it a nomination for the Best Design Award, which it won. Plunderbird 2 Plunderbird 2 was created from the shell of its original counterpart, but was wider, black in colour, and with thicker armour and more sloping sides. The aerial flexed, allowing it to bend away from House Robot attacks. Its main weapon was a steel screw ram. In addition, it had heavier and more powerful tracks as well as a steel bulldozer blade, both of which were added to prevent a repeat of Plunderbird 1's misfortune. The tracks were built by John and Fiona Ryland of Terminal Ferocity, who were friends of Mike Onslow and lived across the street from him. John and Fiona also created the shell for Plunderstorm/Plunderbird 4. To compliment the pushing capabilities of the bulldozer blade, the top of Plunderbird 2's wedges had notches to prevent robots from driving up it - a feature that was later carried over to Plunderstorm and Plunderbird 4. Plunderbird 2 was easily the most successful of the Plunderbird series, as it managed to reach the semi finals, knocking two House Robots off the ring during the King Of The Castle trial, the only robot to do so. Plunderbird 2 weighed over the then Heavyweight Limit. Plunderstorm The third Plunderbird robot, known as Plunderstorm, was entered in Series 3. Plunderstorm was created from a brand new shell and chassis. It was a steel wedged ramming machine with a front static scoop. Originally, Plunderstorm was also armed a circular saw, but due to it being a hardened disc that could shatter, the team were forced to remove it, as were a number of other teams in Series 3, including Cerberus. The robot cost £4,000 over 500 hours and was mostly made from steel. Plunderstorm lost in the first round of Series 3 after it broke down on entry. Plunderbird 4 Plunderbird 4 was seeded 26th in Series 4, the only Plunderbird machine to be seeded for Robot Wars. The robot was built from the shell and chassis of Plunderstorm. Whilst retaining the basic box-wedge shape of all Plunderbird machines, Plunderbird 4 was painted yellow and red (assumed to be in reference to Thunderbird 4, which was also primarily yellow and red in colour) and featured a hydraulic slicing claw, referred to as a "Slicer Dicer" (originally Plunderbolt), although the team humorously claimed that the robot's main weapon was "fear, surprise and brute force". The robot was armoured in aerospace aluminium and travelled at 15 mph. Plunderbird 5 Plunderbird 5 was the final machine of the team. A brand new machine which was lower, wider, faster and more powerful than its predecessors, it was black and red and had a similar claw weapon to Plunderbird 4. The weapon was now referred to as a "Plunderthocker", and the steel plate at the front of the machine acted as a lifter to trap a machine beneath the claw. Unlike all its previous incarnations, Plunderbird 5 ran on wheels but had a 2.5 cm ground clearance. It only won one of the five battles it fought in, and was destroyed in its final appearance by S3. The team joked in Extreme 1 that it had self-righting Sidewinder guided missiles. Qualification Plunderbird 1 attended the auditions for Series 1 in a completed state, and impressed the producers, including Chris Reynolds. Plunderbird 1 can be seen amongst other robots at the auditions during The Making of Robot Wars special. An unfinished Plunderbird 2 attended the Series 2 rehearsals. Plunderbird 2's body work was completely light blue and lacked any detail https://web.archive.org/web/20000306080541/http://www.johnreid.demon.co.uk/rehearsal/index.htm. At the rehearsals it had interchangable weapon podshttps://web.archive.org/web/19991009084634/http://www.tinweb.com/robot/rehearsal/seriesii.html and a newly built track systemhttps://web.archive.org/web/19990417052259/http://www.tinweb.com/robot/rehearsal/index.html. It was successful in qualifying. Robot History Series 1 Plunderbird 1 had equipped the spike weapon for its Gauntlet run. It trundled out of the starting position and attempted to take the right pathway. However, Shunt bulldozed its rear ram into the side of Plunderbird 1, and pushed it across the side of the arena and up against the ramp, wedging it between it and the pyramid in front. Plunderbird 1 was unable to escape as Shunt came back forward and struck with its axe. Time expired and Plunderbird 1 had covered a distance of only 4.81m, putting it at the bottom of the leaderboard. Dreadnaut broke down shortly after its own Gauntlet run, and it seemed like it would need to retire, which would have reinstated Plunderbird 1, despite the team claiming that "They would not want to benefit from someone else's misfortune", but Dreadnaut managed to recover in time for the Football trial, securing Plunderbird 1's loss. At the end of the series, Plunderbird 1 was awarded with the Best Design Award, largely due to its interchangeable weaponry. Series 2 In its Gauntlet run, Plunderbird 2 shot past the Sentinel with ease, before driving straight into the pit just beyond it. Despite this, it had covered 10.5 metres, enough ground to progress to the next round, finishing 5th on the leaderboard overall. This act prompted the other teams to call Mike, Bryan and Ken "chickens" back in the pits, because they believed it was performed intentionally to avoid damage from the house robots. Plunderbird 2 redeemed itself greatly in the Trial stage of the heat, which was King of the Castle for this heat. Plunderbird 2 was victorious in its run, after it was able to stand its ground after the initial shoves from the house robots. Plunderbird 2 then scooped up Dead Metal, carried it over to the edge of the ring and knocked it off. By which time, Sergeant Bash was very near the edge itself, and was thrown off balance by a nudge from Plunderbird 2, leaving just the latter on the ring. Plunderbird 2 was the only robot in the heat to be victorious, so went through to the next round. Plunderbird 2 was placed up against Enzyme in the Heat Semi-Final. In the battle Plunderbird 2 immediately wedged underneath Enzyme using its bulldozer blade, before pushing Enzyme into Sergeant Bash in the PPZ, and then onto the flame pit. The two competitors were eventually picked apart by the house robots, with both then escaping the PPZ heading for Sir Killalot, until cease was called for a judges' decision. The judges unanimously gave the win to Plunderbird 2, putting it through to the Heat Final. In the Heat Final, Plunderbird 2 was up against The Mule. In this battle, Plunderbird 2 once again immediately wedged underneath its opponent forcing The Mule to face to one side, unable to push back. Plunderbird 2 turned around, still with The Mule propped on its wedge, and pushed The Mule across the arena, almost into the pit of oblivion, whilst also withstanding the constant kicks from The Mule's weaponry. Towards the end, Plunderbird 2 nearly pushed The Mule into the PPZ, but The Mule began to slide off the wedge, and Plunderbird 2 was less able to push it, but cease was then called for a judges' decision. The decision went in favour of Plunderbird 2, putting it through to the Series Semi-Finals. Prior to Plunderbird 2's appearance in the Semi-Finals, the team entered the arena to entertain the audience whilst the arena was being prepared. However, Plunderbird 2's great run in the Second Wars came to an abrupt end in the Gauntlet stage of the Series Semi-Finals as it only travelled 0.9m. Plunderbird 2 drove through the blocks, but was pushed right back to the wall by Shunt, before Matilda hammered the final nail into the coffin by slicing off the aerial with her chainsaw. There was hope in Haardvark's Gauntlet run when Matilda started dragging them back, but unfortunately for the Plunderbird team, Haardvark just scraped through after a distance of 2.4m. At the end of the series, Plunderbird 2 won the Sportsmanship Award. Series 3 Plunderstorm had a very brief war. Shortly before the fight, the team were asked by the crew to remove their saw blade as it had a risk of shattering, to which they begrudgingly complied. The robot had only one fight against newcomers Thermador. It started off with only one track working, so struggled to move away from its starting position. It was rammed once by Thermador, who reversed to take a second attack, but a couple of seconds afterwards, Plunderstorm broke down completely, leaving it at the mercy of the House Robots and Team Lobster's machine, eventually finishing with Sir Killalot spearing the beaten Plunderstorm with its lance into one of the tracks, before lifting Plunderstorm up, carrying it around, and lowering it into the pit. At the end of the series, Plunderstorm was nominated for the Sportsmanship for the second year in a row. But this time, it lost out to Diotoir. Series 4 Despite the team's early exit from Series 3, Plunderbird 4 was seeded 26th for the Fourth Wars, due to their sportsmanship, popularity and status as former Semi-Finalists. The newest Plunderbird model did little in its first round battle with Vercingetorix and Fat Boy Tin. In the battle, Plunderbird 4 and Vercingetorix ganged up on Fat Boy Tin, forcing the huge machine into Sir Killalot's CPZ. Plunderbird 4 hung back whilst Fat Boy Tin was toppled onto its side. Vercingetorix then went on to attack Plunderbird 4, flipping it onto its side, before then being righted. Despite this, Plunderbird 4 went through to face Knightmare in the second round of the heat. This was the only fight in which Plunderbird 4's claw was working, and even then, it was not working to its full potential. In the battle, Knightmare slipped underneath Plunderbird 4, backed away before ramming it again. The two constantly bumping each other but no significant attacks could be made at all. Plunderbird 4 got underneath Knightmare, rendering the robots stuck together for a short while. The pit suddenly opened and Refbot pushed Knightmare off of Plunderbird 4 to let the battle continue. Plunderbird 4 showed a little sign of aggression, lightly pushing Knightmare, but Knightmare darted away to attack again. Finally, in one fell swoop, Knightmare toppled Plunderbird 4 onto its side. The house robots closed in, before Sir Killalot dumped it into the pit, confirming that Plunderbird 4 was out of the wars. Plunderbird 4 teamed up with Bigger Brother in the Tag Team Terror of Series 4. Against Firestorm 2 and Scorpion, the two faced a tough opposition. Plunderbird 4 joined the action as the rules disintegrated and pushed Scorpion around. Firestorm rammed Plunderbird 4 from behind, but was sent back to the Red Zone by Refbot. Plunderbird 4 backed away from Scorpion, as Firestorm rammed into it again. Firestorm got around to the side Plunderbird 4, pushing it all the way into the Red Zone and slamming it into the side wall. Plunderbird 4 was freed after Matilda lifted Firestorm away from it. Plunderbird 4 pinned Firestorm against the side wall, giving Bigger Brother a chance to flip it, but it didn't get it over. Plunderbird 4 and Scorpion came to blows, but Plunderbird 4 seemed immobilised after the attack. Firestorm almost flipped it over, flipping it onto its claw, before driving right under it, and being pinned momentarily. Plunderbird 4, still static, was gripped by Sergeant Bash and forced into the side wall. Bigger Brother and Plunderbird 4 were eliminated by a Judges' decision. In the Play-off, Plunderbird 4 had problems internally, and therefore only played a small part in the upcoming battle. Plunderbird 4 watched on as X-Terminator flipped Bigger Brother, who self-righted. Bigger Brother came back and lifted up X-Terminator and slammed it into Plunderbird 4. Refbot bumped the lifeless Plunderbird 4, then left it touching the side wall. After a long time of battling between Bigger Brother and X-Terminator's, X-Terminator bumped into the corpse of Plunderbird 4, but then drove straight into the pit. Despite doing little in the entire battle, Plunderbird 4 and Bigger Brother took third place. At the end of the series, Plunderbird 4 was nominated for the Sportsmanship Award for the third consecutive series. But, for the second year in a row, it lost out to Diotoir. Extreme 1 Plunderbird 5 made a variety of appearances in Extreme Series 1. Plunderbird 5 was due to compete in the Tag Team Terror alongside Bigger Brother, where they would have faced Spawn Again and Comengetorix. However, Plunderbird 5 was forced to withdraw after it charged down the entry gate, damaging the robot and the entry gate in the process. It was replaced, quite hastily, by Major Tom. However, this new duo didn't fare well in the competition, going out in Round 1. It fought in two Vengeance battles: The first was against Sir Chromalot, who they called 'a bunch of girlies' to spark a vengeance. In the proper battle, Plunderbird 5 and Sir Chromalot did a lot of pushing and shoving around the arena, until Plunderbird 5 tried to grab Sir Chromalot, but was lifted up by Sir Chromalot's flipper instead. It did manage to grab on to its opponent, and started pushing it towards the pit, nearly pushing it in, but missed, accidentally reversing over the edge of the pit, where it was pitted by Sergeant Bash. Plunderbird 5 still wanted a rematch afterwards, though. At the end of the battle, Plunderbird 5 sang their new theme tune, which was only really planned to be sung if they won the battle, but was used nonetheless. Plunderbird 5 fought Mega Morg in another vengeance battle, this time relating to who sang better. The two teams had a singing contest in the pits before the battle. Again this battle mostly consisted of the two robots pushing each other around the arena. Both robots dodging each other at the start of the battle and attempted to attack, before Plunderbird 5 was lifted by Mega Morg's improved lifter. It then tried to grab hold of its opponent, and eventually did so. Plunderbird 5 then forced Mega Morg's lifter to jam open. Sergeant Bash then came in and burnt the Ninja Sheep on top of Mega Morg, Shunt then followed that up by piercing Mega Morg's top, but for a while couldn't get its axe out. When Shunt eventually broke free, Plunderbird 5 then tried to prise open Mega Morg's front armour, until cease was called, and Plunderbird 5 won on points in a very dull battle. This would be Plunderbird's final victory in Robot Wars. Alongside Stinger and Scorpion (who it fought in the Series 4 Tag Team Terror), Plunderbird 5 fought Shunt and Dead Metal in the first House Robot Rebellion. It rammed Dead Metal, but was caught by the House Robot and sliced in punishment. As Plunderbird 5 escaped, the floor flipper activated, sending Plunderbird 5 flying up into the air and landing on top of an out of control Stinger. It was then seized by Shunt and finally pitted, and was soon followed by Scorpion just as Matilda entered the arena. Stinger went on to win the battle. Plunderbird 5 was also due to compete in a Mayhem battle to qualify for the second Annihilator, however, it was unable to compete in this too, as it had suffered irreparable damage from its battle against S3 in the heats of Series 5. US Season 1 Plunderbird 5 competed in the first season of Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors, representing the UK in the War of Independence special. In its first round battle, Plunderbird 5 fought the US representative Rosie the Riveter, and bore the Union Flag on its surface in representation of the United Kingdom. Plunderbird 5 crashed straight into Rosie the Riveter, knocking away its US flags, and forced it back towards the arena entry gates, using the Plunderthocker to hold Rosie the Riveter towards the floor. In retaliation, Rosie the Riveter found an opening to drive under Plunderbird 5, slamming it into the arena wall, and holding it against an angle grinder. After this powerful slam, Plunderbird 5 could not drive away from the wall, only turning in circles, and it was rammed in succession. Although it continued to sustain ramming attacks, the resilience of Plunderbird 5 bent the ramming spike of Rosie the Riveter, pinning the US representative to the floor. With both robots no longer able to drive forward, a stalemate was held until the time limit expired, and the battle was sent a Judges' decision in spite of Plunderbird 5 largely being immobile. The Judges made their decision, and remarked that it was very close, but they ultimately sided with Rosie the Riveter, as it had caused more damage during the battle. As such, Plunderbird 5 became the third British representative within the episode to fall in the first round, following on from Stinger and Spawn Again. Series 5 Plunderbird 5 was drawn against veteran S3 in the first round of the Series 5 heats. It got an initial shove on S3, but one of its tyres burst, destroying its manoeuvrability and ground clearance. S3 flaked off pieces of its armour off its sides before breaking the piston mechanism on its weapon. Plunderbird 5 was pushed into the CPZ, where Sir Killalot held it down while S3 continued to eat into its right side wheels. Sir Killalot dragged Plunderbird 5 along the arena floor with Plunderbird 5's right wheels dropping off in the process, before placing it on the floor flipper where it was tossed, and S3 attacked it one final time. This was the team's last appearance. Results |} |} |} |} |} Wins/Losses *UK Wins: 5 *UK Losses: 6 *US Wins: 0 *US Losses: 1 NOTE: The Gauntlet and Trial runs of Plunderbird 1 and Plunderbird 2 are not included Series Record UK Series Plunderbird team.JPG|The International Wreck Crew with Plunderbird 2 Plundr21.jpg|The chassis of Plunderbird 2 Plunderbird machines pre 3.jpg|The first two Plunderbirds and the shell of Plunderstorm at the Bordon 1999 Charity event Plunderbird extreme in pits.png|Plunderbird 5 in the pits Plunderbird 2011.png|Plunderbirds 2 and 4 (and the weapons pod for Plunderbird 1) on display at the 2011 UK Championships US Series Outside Robot Wars Mike Onslow, the team captain, who was a model maker for a living, still has the shells of Plunderbird 2 and Plunderbird 4 (Which were made from those of Plunderbird 1 and Plunderstorm respectively, but no longer has the shell of Plunderbird 5 due to it being destroyed by S3), along with the weapon pods from Plunderbird 1, and occasionally brings them to various live events. For more information on the team's excursions outside of Robot Wars aside from Plunderbird, see here. Appearances in Merchandise MiniPlunderbird5.jpg|The Plunderbird 5 Minibot Plndrbrd4AD.jpg|Plunderbird 4 in Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction Plunderbird 5 RW- ED.jpg|Plunderbird 5 in Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox) *Plunderbird/Minibot *Plunderbird/Robot Wars: Advanced Destruction *Plunderbird/Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC/Xbox) Trivia *Plunderbird 2 was the first robot to name a robot with sequential models. This would later become common practice in The Third Wars. *Plunderbird and Firestorm are the only machines to name a Model 5 machine. Other machines such as Bulldog Breed entered five versions of the machine, but Plunderbird and Firestorm were the only two to designate their machine as the fifth in the series, rather than a general name. *Plunderbird is one of two robots to win two different awards, along with Gemini, having won the Best Design and the Sportsmanship Awards. *Plunderbird and The Steel Avenger are the only Award winners to defeat the previous year's winner, as Plunderbird defeated Nemesis to win Best Sportsmanship. *Plunderbird was the only robot to fight in Series 1 and 5. *In testing, Plunderbird 2 pulled a Range Rover and a Ford Transit mini bus. *Plunderbird 5 was the only Plunderbird model not to be nominated for an award. *Plunderbird's first and last appearances were in Heat C. *Plunderbird 1 and Mortis were the only robots in Series 1 to have tracks. *Plunderbird is one of only three tracked robots to reach a semi-final of a domestic championship, the other two being 101 and Mortis. **Plunderbird and 101 both lost in the first round of Series 5 to a robot with a spinning weapon. *Although none of the five Plunderbird robots had a srimech, only one of Plunderbird's nine losses was the result of being flipped over. *Plunderbird 4 had a brief cameo on the sitcom Spaced in the episode "Mettle". *Out of all the competitors that fought in the Vengeance battles held throughout Robot Wars Extreme, Plunderbird 5 was one of the only two competitors that fought in two of those battles. The other being Mega Morg, also both of those robots would fight each other in one of their two battles. *Plunderbird lost in the first round in three of the five wars they entered, which curiously were the odd-numbered wars, the same pattern suffered by the Ming robot series and Adam Clark's machines. *During an interview in the Robot Wars Magazine, Brian Kilburn said that he was working on a robot named Plunderbug One, an eight-legged walker. *Plunderbird and Thermidor 2 are the only robots to have reached a semi-final of at least one War and yet lose in the first round of three other Wars. This was a statistic solely born by Plunderbird until Series 8. **One of Plunderbird's first round losses was actually to Thermador. *For Series 8, Mike Onslow joined 'Team. Ablaze', and applied with their existing machine Dystopia, although it was not chosen to participate. *Plunderbird 4 was one of four robots to have been seeded despite losing in the first round of the previous series. The others were Killerhurtz and Stinger (also in Series 4) and Thermidor 2 (in Series 7). **Killerhurtz was the only one of the other three not to appear in a battle with Plunderbird at some point nor appear in the same episode as it. Honours Nominations *'Sportsmanship Award' - Robot Wars: The Third Wars *'Sportsmanship Award' - Robot Wars: The Fourth Wars References Category:UK Series competitors Category:UK Semi-Finalists Category:Best Design winners Category:Sportsmanship Award winners Category:Series 4 Seeds Category:Sportsmanship Nominees Category:International event only competitors in the US Series Category:Robots with more Losses than Wins Category:Robots from Hampshire Category:UK Representatives Category:Tracked Robots Category:Robots with alternate versions Category:Competitors in 5 Wars Category:Robots with Vertical Crushers Category:Robots Profiled in the Ultimate Guide Category:Robots that bore the UK flag Category:Robots with puns for names Category:Robots with Spikes Category:Robots with Circular Saws Category:Robots with Cutting Discs Category:Robots with Lifting Scoops Category:Robots with Interchangeable Weapons Category:Robots to appear in Battle Cards Pack 2 Category:Robots with names based on film and television Category:Tag Team Competitors Category:Robots which have driven into the Pit Category:Robots that forfeited a place Category:Robots playable in video games Category:Robots made into toys Category:Robots which debuted in Series 1